A bit of Tolkien on a Saturday evening

[kellyrfineman]

I find that from time to time, some of the poems written by Tolkien within The Lord of the Rings comes to mind unbidden. Not the really lovely stuff, like Elf song, but the simple rhymes attributed to Bilbo Baggins. Of course, I did watch part of the Fellowship of the Rings movie on TV last night, but went to bed before it was over, so today I can'

Comments

[annemariepace]

I couldn't get through half of THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, and I definitely don't remember any poems. But I'm glad you do. We all need poems to love. :)

[kellyrfineman]

Heh.

[annemariepace]

You're not going to attack me for not loving Tolkien? :)

[kellyrfineman]

Dear silly person:

You cannot help it if you don't like Tolkien. For one thing, he has long, long passages of description that some find particularly boring. For another, he has long, long songs in Elfish that some find particularly boring. And distracting. And dull. For yet another, some folks read a bunch of later-written fantasy that kinda sorta followed the ground he first tilled, and therefore see nothing groundbreaking in his work.

But if, like me, you got a boxed set containing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings from your favorite aunt for Christmas when you were 12, and sat down and plowed through all four books in about 3 days, and you had never read anything remotely like it, ever, methinks you might have been in love with it for life.

There are some wonderful, wonderful lines in there, too. Like the one in my icon. Or the one Eomer just said onscreen (The Two Towers is on TV): "Look for your friends, but do not trust in hope."

But hey, if it's not for you, it's not for you.

[annemariepace]

It was the description that did me in.

And yes, if my favorite aunt had given me a boxed set when I was 12, I might have been the same as you.

Did you read SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS? :)

[kellyrfineman]

Nope. *heads off to look it up online to see what on earth it is*

[annemariepace]

It is the first book of one of my favorite childhood series. But no one in the U.S. seems to have read them. Well, not NO ONE. But lots of people haven't. :(

[kellyrfineman]

Your favorite childhood series had a child named "Titty" in it? hahahahaha!

It sounds like something I might've liked. It kinda looks like it came out in the 1930s, then may not have been in print for a while, which may be why I'd never seen it.

TadMack says: :)

[anonymous]

Dear Girl After My Own Heart,

My other blog -- chronicling my temporary move to Scotland -- is called Hobbits Abroad. "Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves...." [The Hobbit]

Down the side of the blog is one of my favorite poems:

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

-The Fellowship of the Ring

Re: TadMack says: :)

[kellyrfineman]

I knew we were soulmates.

[wordsrmylife]

Definitely not just you. I found myself, and sometimes still find myself, going back to look at the poems, although I'm being lazy about getting out of my chair so I can tell you which ones.

[kellyrfineman]

Although I read The Hobbit only two or three times, I did memorize the fish riddle:

Alive without breath
as cold as death
Never thirsty, ever drinking
All in mail, never clinking